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Seminar on "Cancer, Atherosclerosis, Mitochondria Isolation, BBB penetration and their `Nanoparticle Connection`" on 17 April 2018

Date and Venue Information:

17 April 2018, 04:30 PM, Seminar Hall, Chemistry Department

Title of Lecture:

"Cancer, Atherosclerosis, Mitochondria Isolation, BBB penetration and their 'Nanoparticle Connection'" by Bhabatosh Banik, Nanotherapeutics Research Laboratory, University of Miami, USA

Brief Profile:

Nanoparticles that are capable of targeting a specific cell type or a specific organelle in a certain cell population can be of tremendous therapeutic relevance. Meticulously designed of nano-constructs and drug payload can impart spatio-temporal control on the therapeutic potential. Spatial control enables site-specific activity of a drug and thereby minimizing off-target effects. This can be achieved by the use of targeting ligands and smartly engineered drug delivery vehicles. Temporal control provides an additional tool by means of which one can switch “on” or “off” the therapeutic activity of a drug.

This lecture will take you through the journey from designing small molecules for potential chemotherapeutic applications to developing nano-constructs for a variety of biological applications. It began with designing of small oxovanadium(IV) complexes for their potential use as photochemotherapeutic agents. Among all those, transdichloro oxovanadium(IV) complexes of terpyridine ligands were particularly interesting as they were found to cross-link DNA in an inter-strand fashion upon photoactivation. Suitably designed polymeric nanoparticles were then used to deliver potent anti-inflammatory agents or cisplatin pro-drugs in a site-selective fashion. Suitable peripheral modifications have also shown to impart mitochondria targeting and Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) penetration capabilities to the nanoparticles. Mitochondria targeting was also employed in polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticles for therapeutic and diagnostic applications in atherosclerosis and in iron oxide based nano-tools for magnetic isolation of mitochondria. All these observations open up new avenues for design and development of newer nanomaterials for a wide plethora of applications.